DOOMSDAY AFTERNOON

Flawless. I usually swim in the shallow pond of avant-RIO pool but occasionally I experiment with artists who are not familiar to me from other genres. I found out about Phideaux with his "The Great Leap" release in 2006. To my ears it was mildly interesting but nothing to write home about. When he subsequently released the "Doomsday Afternoon" I took my time and did not jump in with the fan-boys. After reading the comments on this site I decided to take the plunge (sorry. continuing on the pool theme). Lo and behold I now became a fan-boy for Phideaux myself.

Doomsday Afternoon is different then all of his other 5 previous albums (yes I did buy them all. Didn't I say fan-boy).The difference of Doomsday afternoon compared to his other releases is not in the style of the music but in its maturity, structural completeness, and sound texture. In this record he mixes the output of his rather large group (10 individuals) with an orchestra in an extremely skilful manner that would put many of the classical musicians to shame. Although in his writings he sometimes refers to the orchestra as the "pesky orchestra" his skill in orchestration is surprising.

First of all although there are 10 song names listed at the back of the album it really is a single coherent piece of music. Can you imagine trying to pick a song from "Thick as a brick" or the "Passion Play" and only play that song and not the rest? It just will not work. Will it now. Well the same holds true for the Doomsday afternoon too. You must hear the whole thing in one sitting.

After arguing that the record cannot be broken down to is pieces I obviously will not go a head and review the CD song by song. It will suffice to say that it deserves five stars from someone like me who doles out five stars rarer then tooth in a hen.

I must make a special mention of the ladies of the group. First of all four members of the 10 are females of which I think three sing along with Phideaux. One of them has a very unique voice and he manages to bland her voice very skillfully with the other two resulting in harmonies that will give a poor soul goose bumps. You must understand, this has not always been the case in his past five records. Again it is one of those things that suddenly changed in this record and made it a one of a kind, flawless masterpiece.

If you have not heard it yet do not hesitate as I did. Enjoy.